


accidental acquisitions

by extasiswings



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: A Kitten For Christmas, Accidental Cat Acquistion, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Soft Eddie Diaz, a hint of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25541731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extasiswings/pseuds/extasiswings
Summary: Eddie rubs a hand over his face.  “Okay—okay, I believe you—let me just—”And then he stops.  Because he hears it too.  A small clank followed by the tiniest mew.Eddie blinks, crosses around to the front of the truck, and presses the button on his key fob to pop the hood.  When he lifts it—Wide, round eyes stare back at him amidst dirty, matted fur.  The kitten curled up in his engine bay makes another small noise and presses closer to the battery.…yeah, Eddie thinks.  Chris is going to be late for school.
Relationships: Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 52
Kudos: 690





	accidental acquisitions

**Author's Note:**

> There is zero point to this except for me having a mighty need for Eddie accidentally becoming a cat dad. I don't know where the Feelings came from, those snuck in.

It’s the twelfth of December and Christopher is running late for school.

Things are not quite as bad as they could be because Eddie has the day off, so he isn’t also running late to work, but there’s still that itch of anxiety running down his back, between his shoulders, about the fact that he can’t even get out of the house on time. Christopher finally goes out first to get in the truck as Eddie hunts for his wallet and Eddie expects that to be the end of it—if traffic isn’t too terrible they should just be able to make it before the bell—only to be brought to a halt when he follows his son outside only to find Christopher staring at the hood with his head tipped to the side.

“Buddy, we’re late, come on,” Eddie urges gently. 

“But dad, I heard something.”

Eddie stops in the middle of opening the door. “Heard something?”

Chris shrugs and points at the hood. “I think it was coming from there.”

Eddie swears internally. They really don’t have time for this.

“Christopher…”

“I _did_ , I heard something,” he insists.

Eddie rubs a hand over his face. “Okay—okay, I believe you—let me just—”

And then he stops. Because he hears it too. A small clank followed by the tiniest mew.

Eddie blinks, crosses around to the front of the truck, and presses the button on his key fob to pop the hood. When he lifts it—

Wide, round eyes stare back at him amidst dirty, matted fur. The kitten curled up in his engine bay makes another small noise and presses closer to the battery.

…yeah, Eddie thinks. Chris is going to be late for school.

“Is that a cat? How did it get in there?” Chris asks, peering around him.

“It is and I’m…not sure,” Eddie admits. “I’m going to get it out though, so can you get in the car for me, please, so we can leave when I’m done?”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I—” An excellent question. “Well, for now, I guess I’ll just put it in the house.”

And he does. Eddie carefully reaches into the engine bay and scoops up the kitten—it squirms and meows but doesn’t try to scratch or bite him at least—and then he takes it inside and closes it in the bathroom. He can call around to shelters when he’s done taking Chris to school. 

That should be the end of it. It’s not like they’re going to keep it.

“I’m so sorry, we’re already over capacity,” the woman on the other end of the line says an hour later. It’s the third shelter Eddie’s called and he’s gotten the same message from all of them. “It’s winter—we get a lot of kittens around this time of year. But if you want to bring her by, we can check if she’s microchipped, see if she belongs to anyone.”

It is not remotely what Eddie had planned to do on his day off, but he scrounges up an old moving box from the back of his closet, put a towel down, and deposits the kitten into it so it won’t be loose in the truck while he drives. 

As it turns out, she—and it is apparently she—is not chipped, but appears in good health apart from being in need of a bath and some food. The shelter has a visiting vet who gives her some shots and Eddie is sent home with a few extra cans of food, a disposable litter box, and a sample packet of shampoo as well as a promise to call him when they have space if he’s unable to find someone else to take her.

And he is going to find somewhere, Eddie tells himself. Chris has been asking for a pet for ages, but they’re a big responsibility and Eddie works so much and really, it just wouldn’t be a good idea. 

The kitten looks up at Eddie again when they get back to the house and bumps his hand with her head.

“Breakfast,” he says. “And then a bath.”

She meows.

Eddie goes to find a dish and a water bowl.

Buck walks in an hour later to find Eddie drenched in water and suds all over the bathroom floor and promptly bursts out laughing.

“I’m sorry—I thought we were going to the gym. Did I miss the memo about the amateur wet t-shirt contest?”

Eddie levels him with an unamused look and strips off his shirt as he pushes past him, walking into his bedroom to grab one that’s clean and dry.

“Just for that, you can help me find her.”

“…her?”

“There was a kitten in my engine bay this morning,” Eddie explains. “I was trying to give her a bath, I didn’t think to close the door, and now she’s wet and could be anywhere in the house.”

Buck opens his mouth. Closes it. 

“Should I grab a towel, or—?”

“Probably a good idea.”

On one hand, there is a trail of wet paw prints and water droplets all over the floor, which makes things a little easier. On the other…neither of them are small men and the kitten is tiny and probably easily spooked. 

“What’s her name?” Buck asks as he stretches out on the floor to look underneath the couch.

Eddie glances over from where he’s been checking around the Christmas tree. “Oh…she doesn’t have one.”

“You have to give her a name, Eddie, you can’t just keep calling her _the kitten_.”

“I’m not _keeping_ her, Buck.”

“You don’t have to, but you should still—” Buck cuts off abruptly. When he speaks again, his voice is very soft. “Well, hey there, princess. You want to come out and dry off?”

He reaches under the couch slowly, his palm facing up. Eddie can’t see what’s happening, but Buck keeps murmuring quietly, his face pressed up against the space between the couch and the floor. Finally, his arm withdraws, his hand gently wrapped around the squirming, wet ball of fluff.

“There we go,” he says, sitting up and wrapping her in a towel, rubbing softly to dry her fur. “That’s better, huh?”

Buck looks over at Eddie and grins. “She’s pretty cute.”

_You’re pretty cute_ , Eddie thinks absently, and looks away, clearing his throat. 

“I’m still not keeping her.”

“Aw, come on, look at this face,” Buck teases, holding up the bundled towel with the kitten’s head peeking out. She meows softly. 

Now that she’s clean, Eddie can see she’s some sort of calico mix with brown and white and orange—he hadn’t been entirely sure before whether some of the dark patches were coloring or dirt. She is, in fact, very sweet-looking, and if he were to get a cat—

“Who would take care of her when I’m at work?” Eddie points out.

“Chris could handle it. Or you could get one of those automatic feeder things. But cats are easy,” Buck replies. “They mostly take care of themselves anyway.”

Eddie walks over and reaches out, one finger stroking lightly over the top of the kitten’s head. She tips into the touch and he smiles despite himself.

“Are we going to the gym, or what?” He asks, pulling his hand back.

“I don’t know,” Buck says. “I feel like we should stay here and play with your new cat instead—that sounds much more fun.”

“ _Don’t_ call her that,” Eddie laughs. He takes the bundle from Buck, finishes toweling her off, and puts her in his bedroom since the bathroom is still a disaster area. “Come on.”

“Okay, but we’re coming back to this. She still needs a name.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

Christopher is, naturally, delighted to get home from school and see that the kitten is still there. 

“Be careful with her, buddy, she’s little,” Eddie says, and as much as he has reservations about sharp teeth and claws and overly enthusiastic petting, Chris is as gentle as anything and she responds in kind, purring quietly and rubbing against his hand, bumping his forehead with her nose when he lays down on the floor to be on her level. 

At bedtime, Eddie tries to put her back in the bathroom, now clean, but then the meowing starts. It’s quiet at first, but gets louder, and Eddie is—okay, maybe he’s a bit of a soft touch.

“Okay, hey, it’s okay—” He opens the bathroom door and she bolts out, racing past him and into his bedroom. She’s a little too small to jump up onto the bed herself—she tries and ends up clawing at the edge of his comforter to try and save herself when she doesn’t quite make it—so Eddie scoops her up and sets her on his second pillow before he climbs in himself.

He doesn’t expect her to go to sleep right away, but he also is surprised by the attention she gives him, climbing over and around him, exploring like he’s her own personal jungle gym. She purrs and purrs and nuzzles at his neck, his cheek, and finally curls up in the middle of his chest, claiming him for her bed instead of the pillow. And it’s—

Eddie strokes lightly down her back with one finger and gets a faint _mrp_ in response. God, but she really is small. Small and fragile and all alone. It doesn’t entirely make sense to him that she would want to be in here, in his space. In Christopher’s, maybe—that would make sense. He’s smaller and softer and less battered by the world. But she hadn’t run into Christopher’s room, hadn’t run away from Eddie himself even after he was the one responsible for getting her shots, for subjecting her to the indignity of a bath.

She opens her eyes and stares at him for a long moment in the dark before yawning widely and repositioning herself. 

_You don’t want me, sweetheart_ , he thinks as his heart squeezes. _I’m a mess._

But he drifts off with his hand resting gently on her back, holding her close, and when he wakes up she’s even closer, nestled in the space between his neck and shoulder and dozing peacefully.

It becomes a habit as the days pass and Christmas gets closer. Eddie keeps telling himself that he shouldn’t get attached, that they shouldn’t keep her, but he buys an automatic food dispenser and several cat toys and keeps falling asleep with her on his chest every night. When he’s in other rooms of the house, she follows him around, when he’s on the couch, she’ll climb over his shoulders or crawl into his lap, eternally curious and equally affectionate. 

“She’s really claimed you, huh,” Buck jokes as he’s over one night a few days before Christmas. They’re both on the couch, but the kitten is on Eddie’s thigh, purring and kneading at the blanket in his lap. Buck reaches out and scratches behind her ears. 

“I don’t know why,” Eddie admits, but doesn’t disagree with the sentiment. “I’m not really a pet person.”

Buck hums. “You know, cats are really good judges of character. She can probably tell that you’re a good person. Or maybe just that—”

Buck cuts off and looks away. His ears look like they’re tinged red, but Eddie’s not sure if he’s flushed or if that’s just the lights from the tree. 

“Just that…what?”

Buck clears his throat. “Nothing.”

“No, really. Tell me.”

Buck looks down at his hands, toys with his fingers. “Just that…maybe you seem a little lonely.”

Eddie doesn’t know what he expected, but it wasn’t that. His first instinct is to deny it.

“I’m not lonely. I have Chris.”

“I know that, but it’s not the same thing,” Buck points out.

“I have you,” Eddie tries again.

Buck huffs a laugh, his lips quirking up, but he still doesn’t look back. “Yeah. Yeah, you do have me.”

“Buck…”

“Sorry.” Buck shakes his head. “Holidays, you know? Have me in a weird mood. Anyway…it’s late and I’m not making sense, so I should probably—”

“I still haven’t named her yet,” Eddie blurts out, unsure why but wanting to take away the strange sadness lingering around Buck’s shoulders.

Buck looks over. He smiles more easily. “Hmm…well, she wrapped you around her finger pretty fast. Sounds like a princess to me.”

Eddie laughs quietly. “What do you say? Princess?” He asks, scratching behind her ears again. “Is that your name?”

She blinks at him and purrs. 

“Well then…Princess it is.”

Buck gets up—

“You know, you could stay,” Eddie says. “Like you said—it’s late.” There are nerves bubbling in his stomach. There’s no reason why he should be nervous—it’s an innocent offer, nothing they haven’t done before. But there’s a weight to it that isn’t usually there. Or maybe that’s just how it feels to Eddie.

Buck stands in front of him. Wets his lips. Eddie doesn’t breathe.

“I shouldn’t.”

“Why?”

“Because—” Buck drops his gaze again and then Eddie can tell the red in his face isn’t just because of the lights. But Buck takes a breath and looks back up, his shoulders straightening. “—because I’ve been thinking about kissing you all night. And if I stay, I will.”

_You do have me._

Eddie’s mouth is dry. 

_Oh._

“Stay,” he rasps.

Buck leans in, his hands settling on the back of the couch on either side of Eddie’s shoulders. 

“Yeah?”

Eddie nods. “Yeah.” 

Buck closes the gap, kissing him, and it’s soft, slow, sweet. Eddie’s hands slide up Buck’s forearms, curl around his biceps. His tongue slides along the seam of Buck’s lips and he starts to get up, wanting to move things elsewhere when—

Eddie hisses faintly as claws dig into his thigh, the newly dubbed Princess, scrambling for purchase when she was inadvertently thrown off. Far from being frustrated at the interruption, Buck starts laughing, pulling back to collapse onto the couch at Eddie’s other side. Eddie chuckles quietly and sets Princess on the floor before resettling himself in Buck’s lap. 

“Where were we?” He teases as he leans in. Buck hums, his hands sliding up the back of Eddie’s shirt.

“I think right about…here…”

On Christmas morning, Eddie wakes up with a kitten pawing at his shoulder and meowing quietly. Stretched out next to him, Buck’s still asleep.

Eddie smiles.

“Okay,” he says quietly, sitting up and scooping Princess into his arms. “Let’s get you fed and then we’ll see about breakfast for everyone else, how does that sound?”

“Only if you’re not the one making it,” Buck murmurs, eyes still closed.

Eddie swats him with a pillow, then leans in and kisses him.

“Merry Christmas.”

Buck slides a hand around the back of Eddie’s neck and kisses him back.

“Merry Christmas.”

Between them, Princess meows. In the other room, Eddie hears Christopher’s alarm go off—Eddie had made him promise no presents before seven so he could sleep a little longer—

“I guess it’s time to get up,” he acknowledges.

Buck hums and sits up, reaching down to the floor to grab his shirt from the night before. 

“I guess it is.”

Later, Princess gets in the tree and ends up making a mess shredding ribbon and wrapping paper. But Buck is there pressing coffee into Eddie’s hand with a kiss and Christopher is settled on his other side and it’s—

—well, it’s a little bit perfect.


End file.
